[steering-discuss] About elections

Hello everyone,

given that the Foundation is close to being created, and that we have now nearly 100 approved members (thanks to the membership committee for their great work!), I guess that in the near future we should think about holding elections for the future board of directors. IIRC, all other roles besides the AB, are then voted on by the BoD.

Anyone already had a closer look or is working on that yet? I guess we need some nomination phase, and people taking care of and monitoring the poll, and those should be not amongst the candidates.

Florian

Hi :slight_smile:
I think 100 is still quite small compared to the numbers of people actually
involved. So the list of members is still more like a special-interest
sub-set. The founder members are doing a great job and i hope that they stay in
place for a long while yet.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

From: Florian Effenberger <floeff@documentfoundation.org>
To: steering-discuss@documentfoundation.org
Sent: Mon, 6 June, 2011 10:19:06
Subject: [steering-discuss] About elections

Hello everyone,

given that the Foundation is close to being created, and that we have now
nearly 100 approved members (thanks to the membership committee for their great
work!), I guess that in the near future we should think about holding elections
for the future board of directors. IIRC, all other roles besides the AB, are
then voted on by the BoD.

Anyone already had a closer look or is working on that yet? I guess we need
some nomination phase, and people taking care of and monitoring the poll, and
those should be not amongst the candidates.

Florian

-- Florian Effenberger <floeff@documentfoundation.org>
Steering Committee and Founding Member of The Document Foundation
Tel: +49 8341 99660880 | Mobile: +49 151 14424108
Skype: floeff | Twitter/Identi.ca: @floeff

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Hi Tom,

I think 100 is still quite small compared to the numbers of people actually
involved. So the list of members is still more like a special-interest
sub-set. The founder members are doing a great job and i hope that they stay in
place for a long while yet.

thanks for the flowers, as we say in Germany. :slight_smile:

Well, there are two things:
The steering committee has to end its existence one year after being set in place, which would be, depending on how that needs to be counted, either end of August, or September 28th.

In addition, to set up the Foundation in Germany, we need to provide the names of the legal representatives. As we hope to have the legal paperwork finished soon, we also need those names. So, maybe waiting one or two more weeks is possible, but given that we have been accepting members for a few weeks already, I guess the time that is right will come soon :wink:

Florian

Hi,

I think 100 is still quite small compared to the numbers of people
actually
involved.  So the list of members is still more like a special-interest
sub-set.  The founder members are doing a great job and i hope that they
stay in
place for a long while yet.

thanks for the flowers, as we say in Germany. :slight_smile:

Well, there are two things:
The steering committee has to end its existence one year after being set in
place, which would be, depending on how that needs to be counted, either end
of August, or September 28th.

In addition, to set up the Foundation in Germany, we need to provide the
names of the legal representatives. As we hope to have the legal paperwork
finished soon, we also need those names. So, maybe waiting one or two more
weeks is possible, but given that we have been accepting members for a few
weeks already, I guess the time that is right will come soon :wink:

I'd like to add that not every contributor wants to be a member of the
foundation. Especially those who are payed for the work might not like
to have a too personal connection.

We can ask the membership committee if there is a reasonable number of
applications left which can be finished in the next days.
Else we should go ahead for the reasons given by Florian.

Volker

From: Volker Merschmann <merschmann@gmail.com>
To: steering-discuss@documentfoundation.org
Sent: Mon, 6 June, 2011 11:02:56
Subject: Re: [steering-discuss] About elections

Hi,

>>
>> I think 100 is still quite small compared to the numbers of people
>> actually
>> involved. So the list of members is still more like a special-interest
>> sub-set. The founder members are doing a great job and i hope that they
>> stay in
>> place for a long while yet.
>
> thanks for the flowers, as we say in Germany. :slight_smile:
>
> Well, there are two things:
> The steering committee has to end its existence one year after being set in
> place, which would be, depending on how that needs to be counted, either

end

> of August, or September 28th.
>
> In addition, to set up the Foundation in Germany, we need to provide the
> names of the legal representatives. As we hope to have the legal paperwork
> finished soon, we also need those names. So, maybe waiting one or two more
> weeks is possible, but given that we have been accepting members for a few
> weeks already, I guess the time that is right will come soon :wink:
>
I'd like to add that not every contributor wants to be a member of the
foundation. Especially those who are payed for the work might not like
to have a too personal connection.

We can ask the membership committee if there is a reasonable number of
applications left which can be finished in the next days.
Else we should go ahead for the reasons given by Florian.

Volker

Hi :slight_smile:

+1

Companies do reasonably often pay shares to employees. This would be slightly
different in that the 'shares' do not give a pay-out but similar in that they
give workers a say in the organisation. I think paid workers should be
encouraged to become members but obviously it is their choice.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Volker, all,
[...]

I'd like to add that not every contributor wants to be a member of the
foundation. Especially those who are payed for the work might not like
to have a too personal connection.

We can ask the membership committee if there is a reasonable number of
applications left which can be finished in the next days.

Yes there is still several applications, either we have to statute on or that have just arrived since last week. We did had difficulties to meet during May, but we have now a regular meeting on Monday, so that may help to speed the process too.

Else we should go ahead for the reasons given by Florian.

The time needed to put in place the process to organize the elections would be enough to have the members incorporated by the Committee, so no need to delay, both could run side by side.
Also this is often a reproach that the SC members have not been elected, so for me, the sooner the better to have a clear and fair situation.

Kind regards
Sophie

Hi :slight_smile:
Agreed. But the founders have shown good strategic planning and good planning
for the future as shown by the way things have played out in the last few
weeks. I think it would take time for newly elected people to have such
commitment to the long-term vision.

I have to point out that i am not a founder and not even a regular member. I've
had disagreements and arguments with founders but have always had good reason
to respect even the ones i disagree with.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Tom,
[...]

Hi :slight_smile:
Agreed. But the founders have shown good strategic planning and good planning
for the future as shown by the way things have played out in the last few
weeks. I think it would take time for newly elected people to have such
commitment to the long-term vision.

Thanks for the flowers as we also say in French :slight_smile:

I have to point out that i am not a founder and not even a regular member. I've
had disagreements and arguments with founders but have always had good reason
to respect even the ones i disagree with.

Even if no more a member of the SC, I will still consider me as a founder. But it's not what is important to my eyes. The importance for me reside in the fact that even if I'm not a SC member, I'll still have a say because I'm a member of the Foundation, and though can express my feeling and my wills for the present or the future of the foundation and it's community.
And I'm sure that the new formed SC will take them into account, we're not new and have always shared our knowledge and experience.

Kind regards
Sophie

Hi :slight_smile:
True. Weirdly i hadn't thought of that point lol :slight_smile:

I think the important issue to vote on is the Apache issue. I was wondering if
it might be possible to collaborate with them to put a wiki-page together on the
TDF wiki so that the different lists can vote on the issue and discuss on the
lists. The vote probably couldn't be taken as definite decision but might be
helpful to gauge general feeling.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

+1

From: sophie <gautier.sophie@gmail.com>
To: steering-discuss@documentfoundation.org
Sent: Mon, 6 June, 2011 12:35:04
Subject: Re: [steering-discuss] About elections

Hi Tom,
[...]
>
> Hi  :)
> Agreed.  But the founders have shown good strategic planning and  good
planning
> for the future as shown by the way things have played out  in the last few
> weeks.  I think it would take time for newly  elected people to have such
> commitment to the long-term  vision.
Thanks for the flowers as we also say in French :slight_smile:
>
> I  have to point out that i am not a founder and not even a regular member.
I've
> had disagreements and arguments with founders but  have always  had good
reason
> to respect even the ones i disagree with.
Even if no  more a member of the SC, I will still consider me as a founder. But
it's not  what is important to my eyes. The importance for me reside in the fact
that even  if I'm not a SC member, I'll still have a say because I'm a member of
the  Foundation, and though can express my feeling and my wills for the present
or  the future of the foundation and it's community.
And I'm sure that the new  formed SC will take them into account, we're not new
and have always shared our  knowledge and experience.

Kind regards
Sophie

Hi :slight_smile:
True.  Weirdly i hadn't thought of that point lol :slight_smile:

I think the important issue to vote on is the Apache issue.

Vote on what exactly ?

I was wondering if
it might be possible to collaborate with them to put a wiki-page together on the
TDF wiki so that the different lists can vote

I don't think we have a say and even less a vote on what Apache
Foundation is going to do.

First we have to see what they decide and if they are indeed going
forward with their plan to fork, (granted there is not much suspense
there)
Then we have to see _how_ they're going to do it
Then we have to see _when_/_if_ the poddle graduate
Then we have to see _what_ they end-up doing.
Until then it is pretty much vaporware and there is not much to do,
even less to vote about.

Norbert

100% agreed. I'm eager to vote in support of / on our SC - since it
seems some criticise them for being un-elected :slight_smile: Nice to knock down
all the objections one by one of course.

  ATB,

    Michael.

+1

+1

Hi,

FYI: We asked the Membership Committee to follow-up with some information on membership status and elections soon, so stay tuned. :slight_smile:

Florian

Practical question:

Shouldn't the MC start collecting ssh public-key ?
People having commit access to git or login to any infra box already
have one available... but some member may not have one already on file
and collecting them with some level of chain of trust may not be
completely trivial, and more importantly, may induce some significant
delay.

I suppose the the election won't be conducted in-person, but
presumably on-line... some level of temper-proof seems necessary, if
for no other reason than to avoid FUD and smear campaign about the
legitimacy of our process (there have been enough of that already in
the blog of a notorious Big Blue employee)

Norbert

Completely orthogonal to all the OOo and Apache stuff going on... the
ASF has an online voting tool that you guys may be interested in.
There is both a command line version (for ssh users), and a web-based
version (if you guys also have web-based authentication for your
Members). That tool may be useful for you guys. It provides for secure
and private/secret voting. Just select a few people to do the vote
counting, and away you go.

It is located in a private repository, but I see no reason that it
couldn't be public (simply a historic accident, I believe). If you're
interested, I can snap a copy of the command line stuff. For the
web-based version, please ask on infrastructure@apache.org.

Cheers,
-g

Hi,

I remember that, some time ago, Michael Meeks suggested OpenSTV as a
tool (http://www.openstv.org/).

Hi Norbert,

Hi,

FYI: We asked the Membership Committee to follow-up with some information on
membership status and elections soon, so stay tuned. :slight_smile:

Practical question:

Shouldn't the MC start collecting ssh public-key ?
People having commit access to git or login to any infra box already
have one available... but some member may not have one already on file
and collecting them with some level of chain of trust may not be
completely trivial, and more importantly, may induce some significant
delay.

I suppose the the election won't be conducted in-person, but
presumably on-line... some level of temper-proof seems necessary, if
for no other reason than to avoid FUD and smear campaign about the
legitimacy of our process (there have been enough of that already in
the blog of a notorious Big Blue employee)

We were used to LimeSurvey, from what I remember it can be used on invitation only and password protected generated by the survey admin. For me it has several advantages, among them a simple UI that you can customize and localize. UX could you use it also for their surveys.
But I'm open to other tools of course, this is just because I'm pretty used to this one and we have already use it for voting campaigns

Kind regards
Sophie

Oh, then it's all good.... I was just wondering about the logistic...
looks like the MC has things under control... very good :slight_smile: carry on
:smiley:

Norbert